The Isle of Man lapwings: trawled, not dredged.This weekend will celebrate inhabitants in the village pretty resort of Port Erin, on the Isle of Man. Their annual Queenie festival takes place to promote the scallop of the Queen who thrives in their waters.
With a hull that can reach up to 9cm species, aequipecten opercularis, provides a touch of flesh around a quarter of the size of the King more widely celebrated scallop. The Queen scallop is located as far south as the Canary Islands and the North as Faroe Islands, but it is more abundant in the sea around the Isle of Man, thanks to the progressive approach of the Manx Government of conservation: setting aside protected areas for race stocks and imposing restrictions on the fishing season.
They got even more to shout this year. This season is the first queenies - caught with nets in territorial waters (12 miles around the coast) - eligible for the designation of origin (PDO). The PDO is, awarded by the European Union last November. It is now the products of the sea only in the British Isles, recognized as being traditionally produced, prepared and processed in its entirety, in a specific region, to acquire unique properties. The method of Otter net trawling used by fishermen received Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) certification for sustainability in 2011, the first of the scallop fishery in Western Europe to do so.
Scallops are most often dredged, damaging the bed of the ocean. With King scallops, which spend most of their lives under the seabed, the only other option is the hand diving, which is expensive and does not a high volume. But with the lapwings, there is an alternative. They are active swimmers, leaving the bottom of the sea to feed in summer. So from June to October, harvesters, banished of dredging, trawling for them instead of 12 miles around the coast of the island. (Today the Isle of Man has 28 vessels which net lapwings and only one which dredges for them outside the territorial waters of Manx.)
Lapwings Manx is a success but, as with many other things worldwide sliding the sustainability of seafood, not an unconditional. Scallops dredged out of the Manx waters, including those made by Scottish and Irish vessels, peut-although not MSC and AOP-approved - be still called Isle of Man queenies if they are processed on the island, much in the same way as the Manx kippers, made with herring caught as far as the Denmark and the Shetland Islands, earning their name to be smoked it.
Dredged lapwing recover the same price as caught in a sustainable way and although they need a rinse more than those that were captured in trawling, there is little perceptible difference of quality. "In fact cheaper scraped queenies arise when one takes into account the fuel costs related to slide around heavy Dredging gear," explains Tim Croft of the sins of the island, which provides lapwings to restaurants in London as Hix and Hawksmoor and is co-founder of the Queenie Festival. ?MSC gave us more credibility and awareness of the product, but it is not necessarily an increase in sales or the price we can get. ''
Croft agrees that the situation is not perfect. "The market demands the lapwings in winter when they can only be removed. The biggest problem is to find a commercially viable way of King scallop that doesn't involve dredging. There is a double standard at work, but at least it is now a standard that pointed out that we have a sustainable fishery. ?
Queenies captured UK are still largely ignored at home and shipped abroad where the French, the Spanish and Italians are enthusiastic consumers. UK supermarkets prefer to sell small scallops in Asia and South America.
The hope is that the certification will help to change the situation. "PDO strengthens our history," said Croft. "The UK consumer has never really been aware of the queenies; they are usually only to aware of which retailers push their way. Get on top of the MSC status I hope will help everyone realize that we have a very good product. ?
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